British Land appoints head of retail development
Published: 11 May, 2011
British Land has recruited Centros chief executive Richard Wise as head of retail development
British Land expects its focus on development to continue and its retail portfolio has significant opportunity for development. The retail development programme totals 2.3m sq ft and comprises the 1.4m-sq ft shopping centre at Puerto Venecia, in Zaragoza, and a further 900,000 sq ft of potential development and extension opportunities within the UK retail portfolio.
To run the projects, it has appointed Richard Wise, who has 25 years’ experience in the UK property market. Wise began his career at Chartwell Land, part of the Kingfisher Group, where he went on to direct Chartwell’s £700m retail warehouse portfolio. He left Chartwell to create Box Properties, a successful retail development joint venture with Delancey before becoming CEO of Centros in 2007.
Charles Maudsley, head of retail at British Land, said: “It’s great to have Richard on the team at British Land. He has a wealth of retail property experience developing assets across all retail sectors, both in town and out of town where he has sourced, obtained planning and delivered large high profile schemes. At a time when high quality retail space is limited, Richard’s appointment further strengthens our retail expertise as we look to capitalise from our existing portfolio and expand our development pipeline.”
